EMOTION

DEFINITION

No emotion is either good or
bad. All emotions have a logical and rational cause and function and all
emotions are definable, allowing us to name and catalogue them for future
reference, and to understand and deal with them as they arise.

There
is nothing WRONG with ANY emotion. All emotions are natural and serve a
function. Problems may occur when emotions become neurotic:
persistent, distorted, repressed, misunderstood, badly managed, and
overwhelming for long periods of time, out of balance, and not relevant to
the present experiences and situations.

A habitual repressive response to our emotions generally leads to a state of emotional dulling, flattening of feelings, reduced emotional repertoire, and eventually depression. This is because we are telling the mind to persistently stop our emotions and eventually this actually affects our nervous system so that is learns not to feel. Depression is very commonly an expression of this flattening of emotion. We can begin to overcome depression by understanding our emotions, to "face and embrace" all our emotions, knowing that they cannot harm us, unless we choose to harm ourselves. Our fear of our emotions leads to the construction of a psychological structure in our mind that "depresses" our emotions, which leads to psycho-emotional problems and, of course, the experiences of depression.

It must also be understood that there are many types of depression and some of the types are actually medical conditions; damaged or genetically inherited conditions of the nervous system. If you suffer from depression, think about how you manage your emotions and also consult your Doctor concerning it. Anti-depressants can begin to get our nervous sytem working better so that we can begin to effectively understand and deal with our problems. If you have suffered depression consistently for more than two weeks then it is time to consult your Doctor and also to review your life and the manner in which you manage your emotions. Most types of depression can be overcome or at least reduced by a course of anti-depressants, counselling, and becoming "emotionally knowledgeable."

When we understand our
full emotional spectrum, then we can learn how to master them, applying
that which is appropriate to the appropriate situation.

Emotions are experienced
on a gradient of intensity (1 - 100%).

Sometimes our emotions can be linked to important life
events and issues and it can take time to process them - to work them out
of our system.

Most
of our emotional responses are rooted in our social/emotional mammalian
mind which has appeared through millions of years of evolution.

RECOMMENDED READING

Emotional Intelligence: Daniel Goleman: ISBN 0-7475-2830

EMOTIONS AND THE SEVEN CHAKRAS

We can broadly catagorise our emotions to our seven chakras. Our heart chakra is the place where we experience "Higher Emotions" and attitudes; care, affection, kindness, considering others, empathy, compassion, selfless love. The other centers (particularly the three lower centers) have their own repective emotional repetoire.

When the heart chakra is not functioning properly then we experience a selfish emotional repetoire (the isolated lower self of egotism) because it is the heart chakra that introduces considering others and selflessness (higher emotions) into our personality and experience.

EMOTIONS AND HORMONES

Our lower emotions (the emotions of the three lower chakras) are often automatic and are controlled by hormones that are secreted from their respective glands, into the blood stream, and produce an immediate emotional response. For example, anger, fear, and the stress response are controlled by the adrenal glands. When we are startled, stressed, or frustrated then the adrenal glands secrete adrenal into the bloodstream and we have an immediate strong emotion of "fight or flight". That is why, if we become angry or are getting stressed, we should have a glass of water and do some relaxation breathing to calm the system down and help dilute and flush our the adrenal from our bloodstream.

We can also learn about how our diet influences our emotions. For example, alcohol stimulates our sexuality, this is why they say that alcohol "stokes the fires of lust". Caffeine and nicotine stimulates our adrenal glands and makes us more stressed and angry.

BECOMING AWARE OF OUR EMOTIONAL
SPECTRUM

The bell shaped curve of statistical averages. Extreme negative on the left. Extreme positive on the right. If we act from any of the extremes then the consequences are likely to be negative. This is true for actions based upon our emotions.

unhappy

EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE.

All emotions are simply a
feedback system that tells us about our relationship with the world. All
emotions have a valid and useful function that is why we have them. To deny any
of the full spectrum of emotional responses is to split your wholeness. All
our feelings are giving
us important feedback about the conditions in our lives and need to be respected
and listened to.

The repression of normal
emotions leads to depression - literally to hold down.

Because most people are
untrained in the skill of understanding emotions, we generally repress emotions
which causes tension and anxiety (stress) throughout the human system. This tension and
anxiety leads to all manner of manic/depressive complaints and emotional
disorder that eventually result in discomfort and disease.

To be intelligent about our
emotions means that we must learn to acknowledge how we feel. To begin with,
this is like penetrating a dense dark cloud of confusion, but eventually with
practice, we learn to tune into and understand our emotional behaviour. To do
this, we must be completely honest about how we feel, accepting all those
uncomfortable and so called "negative" emotions that many people have
been taught to ignore.

Emotional intelligence means
that we acknowledge every emotion in the full spectrum of human emotional
behaviour, realizing that all things have a purpose. For example, the emotion of
strong aversion that some people call "hatred" has a much a use as
that of "love" - it informs us that we have a strong aversion to
something and that we need to look into the matter.

It is preferable to
completely acknowledge how we really feel. In this manner, our emotions will
server us with important feedback about how we feel about our life. We have
emotions for definite and logical reasons.

Don’t hide from your
emotions – acknowledge them all and let yourself feel your response to your
environment and the people in it. Don’t think that you shouldn’t think or
feel certain ways towards certain people just because you have been told not to.
Emotions serve us with important information about our interactivity with the
world.

All emotions are simply a feedback system that tells
us about our relationship with the world.

EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL.

A control mechanism. A
person controls another person by creating a strong conditional (based upon the
others behavior) atmosphere of “approval and disapproval.” For example; John
is the controller and Jane is the controlled. When Jane does something that John
doesn’t like he creates an atmosphere of disapproval that influences what Jane
feels about showing that behavior in the future. Basically, John withholds his
loving feelings when Jane does anything that offends his preferences. This no
good. What John should do is to communicate
his feelings of discomfort concerning Jane’s behavior and open up a discussion
so that both sides can reach an agreeable middle ground.

Controlling people are bad
communicators and don’t know how to discuss or negotiate with other people.
They want their own way all the time and may have been spoiled as children where
they discovered that they could exert power over their parents by adopting these
social strategies.